Storage-battery electrode and process of making same.



H. O. HUBBELL. STORAGE BATTERY ELECTRODE AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

' APPLICATION FILED JUNE 6, 1911.

1 83 ,256,, Patented Feb. 17, 1914.

ljV/TNESSES: (115mg m 'proved storage battery electrode which is UNITEDsrnrns earned? HARRY CROSS HUBBELL, 0F NEWARK, NEW! JERSEY.

STORAGE-BATTERY ELECTRODE AND PROCESS OF 'MAKINr SAME.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, IIARRY Cnoss Hun- BELL, acitizen of the United States, residing at Newark, inithe county of Essexand State of New' dersey, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Storage-Battery Electrodes and Processes of Making Same,of which the following is a specification. 7

My present invention relates to an imoxidized on discharge, beingspecifically a plate of special construction wherein cadmium oxid is theactive material.

It-further relates to the process for making said plate.

In thedrawings, Figure 1 shows a plate consisting of alternate layers ofdifferent metals; and Fig. 2 shows this plate after it has been cut upinto bars 1, as along the lines 1 of Fig. 1,- and after these bars havebeen rearranged to form a storage battery plate wherein the layers. aredisposed edgewise to the faces 2 and 3 of the plate, that is, in Fig.

2 the surfaces are placed in abutment. I will now describe my improvedelectrode-plate and the process for its manufacture, reserving it to theclaims to point out the novelfeatures and to define the scope of theinvention, it being understood that the claims will be interpreted tohave the due range of equivalents to which they may be entitled in viewof the art.

I will first describe the process of making the preferred form of platewithin the present invention, wherein nickel strips alternate withcadmium oxid.

I start with a sheet made up in any preferred manner of alternatelayersof cadmium and nickel, the layers being preferv ably of film-likethickness. An obvious way of making the sheet will be by successiveelectro depositions of the metals until the desired aggregate thicknessfor the sheet is reached. I then cut up this sheet into bars which-Ithen arrange side by side in the shape of the finished electrode-plate,with the layers of the bars directed edgewise to the faces of saidplate. Each set of ends of the bars are then integrally united,preferably by fusing them with an oXy-hydrogen or acetylene flame sothat each set of ends are in perfect electrical connection along theside edges of the plate. Another method of Specification of LettersPatent. Patented Feb 1?,1914,

Application filed June 6, 1911.

Serial no. 651,557,

uniting the bars is by binding them together in a surrounding frame of asuitable metal, such as nickel. Here again, however, the ends of thebars are preferably fused to the nickel frame to insure perfectelectrical con nection.

A convenient size for the electrode-plate is about one inch by fiveinches by threesixteenths of an inch thick.

In passing I may say that the mechanical features of obtaining theso-called bars from the sheet and their assembling into a plate withtheir layers disposed edgewise to the superficies are the same asillustrated in my co-pending United States application, Serial No.(531.271, filed'June- 5, 1911.

I now convert the cadmium layers into active material. For examplel 1mheat the plate to a dull heat in the air preferably below the meltingpoint of cadmium, the heating being preferably accomplished on a hotplate. This converts the cadmium layers into cadmium oxid, and I thenhave a cadmium plate ready for use as part of an elec trode wherein thecadmium active material is in intimate contact with conducting strips ofnickel.

Instead of oxidizing the cadmium by the agency of heat I may oxidize itelectrolytically by making the plate an anode in a suitable electrolyte.

Instead of alternating the cadmium with layers of nickel I maysubstitute for the nickel another more electro-negative metal in analkaline electrolyte than cadmium, such. as cobalt, iron, tin, copper,in which event these latter metals constitute conducting strips,arranged in face to face parallelism, disposed edgewise to the faces ofthe plate and being separated by intermediate layers of cadmium oxid.

What I claim is: I

1. A storage battery electrode comprising a plate consisting of numerousthin conducting strips of a suitable metal electro-negative to cadmiumin an alkaline electrolyte, said strips being arranged in close face toface parallelism disposed edgewise to the faces of the plate and beingseparated by intermediate layers of cadmium oxid.

2. The process of making storage battery electrodes consisting inuniting into a plate alternate layers of cadmium and of a metalelectroa'iegative to cadmium in an alkaline Q memes alternate layers ofcadmium, and of a metal electro-negative to cadmium in an alkalineelectrolyte with the layers disposed edgewise to the faces of the plate,and oxidizing the cadmium layers by heating the plate in 10 the presenceof oxygen to a temperature below the melting point of cadmium.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my' signature in presence of twowitnesses.

HARRY CROSS HUBBELL.

Witnesses:

E. W. Sonnrm, Jr., ALAN G. MCDONNELL.

Gomez of thin patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patentn; Washington, D. 0."

